The Wall Street Journal has another “exclusive” on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, following WSJ breaking the news on the end of their Spotify contract and WSJ’s bizarre exclusive on the podcast ideas Harry pitched to Spotify. Given this new story and the previous exclusives, several things are clear. One, Spotify has an ax to grind with Harry & Meghan and they’re grinding that ax publicly, with a Spotify executive smearing them and various Spotify people openly speaking to WSJ. Two, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is far-reaching and extremely focused on the Sussexes ahead of Prince Harry’s eventual civil trial against the Sun/News Group Newspapers in the UK. Both things are true in this case – NGN is going after the Sussexes in a huge way, and there’s no love lost between the Sussexes and Spotify. Behold, some highlights from WSJ’s “Harry and Meghan Produce a Hollywood Flop: Themselves.”

Last year, the Sussexes pitched a documentary idea to Netflix: The subject of endless rumors and gossip, the couple felt qualified to tackle the thorny topic of misinformation. A documentary would cement Harry and Meghan as serious creative types and help shed their reputation as exiles from the House of Windsor trading family dirt for eyeballs. A team assigned to the job at the pair’s Los Angeles-based production company, Archewell, had questions for “H” and “M,” as the Sussexes are known to their employees. Would the misinformation project be a feature film or a series? Who would host it? Would it be historical or contemporary? Would Harry or Meghan appear in it? Would Meghan discuss her bitter history with British tabloids—and if not, who would want to watch? The couple had few answers, according to people familiar with the inner-workings of Archewell and Harry and Meghan’s deals with streamers. The misinformation documentary soon met the fate of other Archewell projects, and faded away.

Will Netflix renew their deal in 2025? The graveyard of video projects they hoped to make includes an animated children’s show called “Pearl” that was canceled by Netflix, as well as at least two TV ideas that the streaming service rejected within the past year, people familiar with Harry and Meghan’s projects said. Netflix is unlikely to renew the couple’s deal, which runs through 2025, the people said… People who have worked with the pair say their Sussex-upon-Sunset outpost was undermined by their inexperience as producers and trouble finding material consistent with their brand, as well as problems beyond their control, including a retrenchment in the entertainment and podcasting businesses.

Archewell spoke to WSJ: An Archewell spokeswoman said, “New companies often make changes in their start up phase, both with people and strategy, and we are no exception. We’re more equipped, focused and energized than ever before.” She said the company recently hired a new head of scripted content, actress and producer Tracy Ryerson.

Netflix spoke to the WSJ: A Netflix spokeswoman said the company valued its Archewell partnership, and noted that “Harry & Meghan” was its biggest documentary debut. “We’ll continue to work together on a number of projects,” she said.

A changing business landscape: Today, streaming boom times have given way to an era of slower growth and unpredictability. Both Netflix and Spotify have cut shows and movies to trim costs. Both have been underwhelmed by the lack of productivity by the Sussexes, people familiar with their perspectives say. “Once you’ve launched your bombshell, what’s next?” said Andrew Morton, the longtime chronicler of the royal family. Archewell employees and associates say the company often lacks direction, and that its founders at times seem surprised by the work required to finish entertainment projects. Most potential initiatives, they said, follow a similar route: Big idea, subpar execution.

Is Netflix actually mad? Executives at Netflix have groused about Archewell’s output, according to people familiar with the matter, and feel that the success of the “Harry & Meghan” documentary is all the company has to show for the deal. Today, one Archewell project is nearing completion at Netflix: a documentary series on the Invictus Games, a tournament Harry founded for wounded veterans after serving two tours with the British Army in Afghanistan. Harry and Meghan are also developing a TV show for Netflix called “Bad Manners” based on Miss Havisham, a Charles Dickens character from “Great Expectations.” The prequel would recast the lonely spinster as a strong woman living in a patriarchal society, though it is unclear whether the show will get a green light from Netflix.

Archetypes’ rocky road: Meghan’s media productivity has largely been concentrated at Spotify, and the road to getting “Archetypes” on the air was rocky. When the Duchess first began working with the audio service, Archewell didn’t have an employee focused on audio projects, and instead, a public-relations representative initially led Archewell’s work with Spotify, people familiar with the company said. The audio company’s executives grew frustrated with the amount of time it took Archewell to conceptualize an idea for Meghan’s podcast and assemble a production team.

Ah, this explains WSJ’s exclusives: Ultimately, Archewell hired a head of audio, who worked in concert with members of Spotify’s Gimlet unit on podcasting ideas. The Gimlet team helped Meghan compile a list of potential guests, and Spotify helped build a podcast studio in the couple’s mansion, said people familiar with the situation. ( News Corp’s Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has a content partnership with Spotify’s Gimlet Media unit.)

Meghan wrote to Taylor Swift? Choosing the right kind of guest was often fraught. Meghan wrote Taylor Swift a personal letter asking her to come on the podcast. The pop star declined, through a representative. Meghan would often ask for changes late in the editing process, at times recruiting senior Spotify executives, including then-Chief Content Officer Dawn Ostroff, to call producers and push them to make changes.

Harry’s podcast ideas: He explored a podcast on veterans but couldn’t find a compelling way to tackle the subject in podcast form. He tossed around subjects such as misinformation and his point of view as someone new to living in America, and at one point considered co-hosting a show with comedian Hasan Minhaj.

[From WSJ]

So, with Netflix, it sounds like they signed a five-year producing-and-development deal and three years into the deal, they’ve had one very successful docu-series and they’ll have a second docu-series coming out this summer, plus they’ve made several pitches which have been rejected by Netflix, and then Netflix turns around and complains of their low productivity? I mean, again – I think it’s fair to say that Harry and Meghan should have been more productive in the past three years. Like, we can say “but Spare was a bestseller” and “the docuseries was a huge success” and that’s all true, but it’s also true that they simply should have been more productive (Harry especially).

It’s also fair to say that a good chunk of this was out of their hands. Some of these ideas sound interesting and worthy of exploration – a podcast about an outsider’s perspective of America and American culture? A podcast about fatherhood or childhood trauma? A docuseries about misinformation & the insidiousness of, say, something like News Group Newspapers? All of that sounds really interesting, so why were these pitches rejected by Netflix and Spotify insiders who are now publicly trashing them? It’s so weird. And WTF is that Taylor Swift story – like, OMG, Taylor Swift didn’t want to do a pod interview, it’s a signal that the Sussexes are a flop! GMAFB.

Photos courtesy of Netflix.

Last month, Addison Timlin filed for divorce from Jeremy Allen White. They were married for three years, but together a lot longer than that. They also have two young daughters together. Shortly after Addison filed and the news broke, she posted on Instagram about Mother’s Day and referred to herself as a single mom. Jeremy’s sources were quiet at the time, but now that the second season of The Bear has come out they’re talking. He was “blindsided” that Addison called herself a single mom and the source says he can’t control his filming schedule/locations and is very involved in his daughters’ lives.

“The Bear” heartthrob Jeremy Allen White was left “blindsided” when his estranged wife, Addison Timlin, posted about being a single mom, sources tell Page Six.

White, 32, is starring in the hotly anticipated second season of his Hulu hit, which debuted Thursday, after winning a Golden Globe for the first season.

But behind the scenes, he’s been dealing with the heartbreak of his marital split.

“Californication” actress Timlin, 31, filed for divorce in LA after just under three years of marriage back in May. She gave no reason for the break-up.

Friends say he definitely did not cheat, and suggested his filming schedule in Chicago had put pressure on the relationship.

In an Instagram post on Mother’s Day, she called herself a “single mom,” while detailing the difficulties of raising children without a “witness” by her side, and posting photos of their young kids.

“Being a single mom is not how I pictured it. It is so f–king hard,” Timlin wrote. “It is all out covered in s–t crying on the floor kick you in the shins screaming with no sound coming out hard.”

Hours later, however, she updated the caption to read, “Co-parent is not how I pictured it,” as followers quickly picked up on her emotional message, with one saying: “There is a difference between being a single mom and being a mom that is single.”

In her initial divorce filing, Timlin asked for primary physical custody of their daughters, Ezer, 4, and 2-year-old Dolores, and asked the court to award White visitation.

But just last week, White responded by asking for joint custody in his response to the filing, in court records seen by Page Six.

A source who knows the couple confirmed that White was “blindsided” by the Mother’s Day post: “Addison changed her Instagram post because it wasn’t accurate, a lot of people were like ‘What are you talking about?’

“Jeremy had no control about where he was filming. He filmed ‘The Bear’ in Chicago and any time he could, he came home. He is so involved in those girls’ lives, he adores his daughters.”

[From Page Six]

In my initial coverage, I wrote: “But the fact that she filed, seemingly abruptly, and the absence of a joint statement… Maybe there’s more to the story there.” Then that Mother’s Day post bolstered that theory. It wasn’t quite going scorched Earth, but was certainly passive-aggressive and painted Jeremy in a bad, absent father, light. Addison even later changed “single mom” to “co-parent” because some people took offense to the idea that the wife of a working actor struggles as much as the average single mom and others began to question Jeremy’s support and involvement. It’s pretty obvious why he took offense to that and makes sense that his camp is refuting that. It’s a bad look. Addison asked for primary physical custody and visitation for Jeremy, while he has asked for joint custody, so clearly he does want to be involved. Jeremy’s source also specifically hits back against the cheating rumors on his side, so I guess they read blind items. This does seem like it has the potential to get a little messier than originally anticipated.

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Instead of a traditional tour, Lana Del Rey is on the festival circuit this year after a four year hiatus from touring (which was mostly due to the pandemic). She started out at MITA festival in Brazil and just performed at Glastonbury in the UK. She was half an hour late at Glastonbury, and because the festival has a strict curfew, her mic got cut off when she had six songs left to go in her set. You all know that I love Lana very much, but I rolled my eyes so hard at Miss Girl’s explanation for being late: her hair just takes so long, okay?

Lana Del Rey showed up for her set at the Glastonbury music festival a half-hour late—and her mic was cut an hour later when curfew arrived. With six songs still to go, she tried to sing a cappella with her fans but was eventually escorted away. As for why she was late, Del Rey told the disappointed crowd, “My hair takes so long to do,” adding that she was “super sorry,” according to the BBC.

[From The Daily Beast]

There is actually footage of her fans singing Video Games after her mic was cut, which is pretty cool. I always get a little emotional when I hear so many people singing the same song like that. She looked visibly upset when she was escorted off the stage. Now, I;m not sure that her hair was the problem. I think she had a case of nerves. Lana strikes me as someone with quickly changing moods and a tendency towards self-sabotage, like one of her idols, Marilyn Monroe. She opened the MITA sets in a Marilyn wig, cosplays as Marilyn in her most recent music video, and has referenced Marilyn in her songs. I think MM is hugely influential in Lana’s mind. Marilyn was often late to set because of debilitating stage fright. The more famous she got, the more pressure she felt to be perfect, and the harder it was for her to get to set on time. (She also had substance abuse issues, which didn’t help.) People put up with Marilyn because she created pure magic on screen. But most of the time, that kind of lateness isn’t tolerated in the music world. Filming days can run long, but concerts don’t allow for the same kind of leeway.

I think Lana sometimes experiences the same kind of performance anxiety, but that’s just my hunch. There’s precedence for it. She’s never been the most confident live performer, as her infamous SNL appearance revealed. Remember when she had a cover story with Rolling Stone, only to try to pull out of it halfway through the interview? If stage fright is the reason why she was late, I have more understanding for that. But if it really was her hair? Girl, only Mariah Carey can get away with that level of diva. Only the Elusive Butterfly Chanteuse. It’s a lousy reason to let all these people down who have been waiting all night–and four years before that. All this also comes after she pitched a fit on her now-defunct Instagram about not being listed as a headliner on the poster, and even threatened to pull out of the festival if it wasn’t fixed. If you want the headliner spot, act like one. Be professional, show up on time.

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photos credit: Justin Ng / Avalon and Getty

If I’m getting the time difference right, it seemed like this whole thing began mid-day Friday. Suddenly, a Russian paramilitary force of recently imprisoned mercenaries called the Wagner Group attacked and took over Rostov-on-Don, Russia. They were met with little resistance in Rostov, nor did they meet much resistance as thousands of Wagner mercenaries hauled ass for hundreds of miles, hellbent on “taking” Moscow before the weekend was over. Yevgeny Prigozhin in “in charge” of Wagner. Prigozhin went from hot-dog-stand owner to owner of a catering company to one of Putin’s close allies and the leader of a massive and dangerous mercenary force. Prigozhin and Putin were so close that Putin basically allowed Prigozhin to form Wagner. When Putin made the catastrophic error of invading Ukraine, Russia’s military couldn’t handle the invasion or the war, so Putin hired Wagner to fight the Ukrainians. Apparently, Prigozhin has been deeply unhappy with the losses his forces have suffered in Ukraine, and originally, he claimed that this massive coup attempt was merely trying to remove Russia’s military leadership, not overthrow the entire government. Well, this whole coup ended on Saturday night because finally Belarus’s President Aleksandr Lukashenko got in touch with Prigozhin:

The Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin announced that his troops marching toward Moscow would turn around, shortly after the leader of Belarus said he was in talks with Mr. Prigozhin on a deal to “de-escalate tensions.”

The negotiations between Mr. Prigozhin and President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus opened the possibility that the rapidly evolving security crisis embroiling the Russian government could be resolved without armed fighting. But Mr. Prigozhin did not immediately say whether his forces were leaving the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, where he has seized critical military and civilian buildings.

In a brief address on Saturday morning, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called the mutiny an act of treason by people who were delivering “a stab in the back of our country and our people.” Mr. Prigozhin, after lashing out on Friday at the Russian military over its handling of the war in Ukraine, took control of Rostov in the early morning and began moving his armed military convoys toward the Russian capital. Mr. Putin, in turn, scrambled security forces in southwestern Russia and Moscow.

The situation shifted quickly late Saturday when Mr. Lukashenko’s office, in a statement, said that Mr. Prigozhin had agreed to the Belarusian leader’s proposal “to stop the movement of armed persons of the Wagner company.” In an audio statement posted to Telegram shortly afterward, Mr. Prigozhin said he was “turning around” to avoid Russian bloodshed and “leaving in the opposite direction to field camps in accordance with the plan.”

[From The NY Times]

Over the course of a 36-hour period, Vladimir Putin had to step out and make a public address and he kept it short. That’s interesting because anti-Russian disinformation bots were definitely trying to convince everyone that Putin, his oligarchs and senior military officials were running like rats from a sinking ship, but it looks like the senior command did stay put in Moscow. It’s also interesting to see how little military and civilian resistance Prigozhin encountered as Wagner raced through the country to get to Moscow. Russian authorities said that Prigozhin was committing treason and armed rebellion. Prigozhin said he was merely a patriot. LOL.

It is good news for Ukraine, more than fifteen months after Russia’s invasion. Putin is deeply unpopular, the Russian military is in chaos, the Russian mercenaries are having supply chain issues and Putin needed his Belarusian buddy to bail him out. Insane.

Imagine if Jose Andres had 35,000 convict soldiers at his command

— Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) June 24, 2023

Prigozhin now says he’s pulling back to avoid spilling blood, after coming within 200km of Moscow. What a day

— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) June 24, 2023

Putin is accusing Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin of treason. Prigozhin calls it a ‘march for justice’. As the story escalates, here’s a video from May about how, from the 80s to now, Prigozhin went from prison, to catering, to the Wagner group. pic.twitter.com/0yU36AFcBJ

— Ros Atkins (@BBCRosAtkins) June 24, 2023

Dark Brandon got Russia to fight a war against itself pic.twitter.com/7DNXm4PLDa

— Santiago Mayer (@santiagomayer_) June 24, 2023

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Here are some odds and ends from the last two days of Royal Ascot, Friday and Saturday. On Friday, Queen Camilla wore a “crisp” white and black look, with an absolutely enormous Philip Treacy hat. I may be wrong, but I believe that pearl necklace is from the Queen Mum’s collection of private jewelry, which she left to Charles. I know for a fact that Charles gave all of his grandmother’s jewelry to his side chick, and that he demands that she wears the pieces often.

On Saturday – the final day of Ascot – Charles and Camilla once again stepped out, because they were both committed to attending every single day of the first Ascot of their reign. Camilla chose a “buttermilk silk dress by Anna Valentine” and yet another Philip Treacy hat. Interestingly enough, the final day of Ascot seemed to be devoted to lesser-known and barely-seen royals and royal-adjacents, with Charles putting in some face time with Frederick Windsor and his wife Sophie Winkleman, plus Lady Gabriella Windsor was there with her husband Thomas Kingston.

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Bonus photos of Princess Beatrice & the Duchess of Edinburgh on Friday. That dress on Sophie is one of the most flattering things she’s ever worn.

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Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Getty, Cover Images.

Cillian Murphy covered a recent issue of Rolling Stone UK, mostly for some early promotion for Oppenheimer (where he plays the lead role), but he’s also promoting the Irish film industry. He’s a producer now and he was interviewed on the Irish set of Small Things Like These, a film about the Magdalene Laundries (you can read the Wiki page here). Cillian and his family lived in London for years, but as his kids started growing up (with English accents), he and his wife moved back to Ireland, where they live a mostly private and quiet life. In this piece, Murphy talks about Catholicism, Ireland, Christopher Nolan and everything else. It’s a great piece, honestly. Some highlights:

The story of the Magdalene Laundries. “Everyone in Ireland that you talk to, of a certain generation, more or less has a story. It’s just in Irish people. What happened with the church, I think we’re still kind of processing it. And art can be a balm for that, it can help with that.”

On Christopher Nolan: “I was a Chris Nolan fan. That’s how I was when I met him for the first time, because I’d watched Following, I’d watched Memento, I’d watched Insomnia. And I met him for Batman Begins, and I met him on the basis of being a fan. So, it feels absurd that I’ve been in six of his films.” At the height of his Peaky fame, Murphy took time to appear in Dunkirk in a cameo as a ‘shivering soldier’ with combat shock, a rather unshowy and minor role. As Murphy points out, “I’d always show up for Chris, even if it was walking in the background of his next movie holding a surfboard. Though… not sure what kind of Chris Nolan movie that would be. But I always hoped I could play a lead in a Chris Nolan movie. What actor wouldn’t want to do that?”

On the process of acting: “Joanne Woodward said acting is like sex: you should do it and not talk about it. And that’s why on set, with a good director, you rarely talk about the actual work. You talk around it, what you’re going to do next. I can do an immense amount of preparation, but then a lot of the action happens to you in real time. So, there is no value, really, in intellectualising anything.”

On Catholicism, religion in general: “My family wasn’t particularly religious, but I was taught by a religious order. The Irish school system was almost exclusively controlled by the Catholic Church, and still is to a large degree. And I went to church and got, you know, communion, confirmation and all of that. I have no problem with people having faith. But I don’t like it being imposed. When it’s imposed, it causes harm. That’s where I have an issue. So, I don’t want to go around bashing the good things about institutionalised religion, because there are some. But when it gets twisted and f–ked-up, like it did in our country, and imposed on a nation, that’s an issue.”

On brilliant scientists: “In Sunshine [Danny Boyle’s 2007 sci-fi movie], I played a physicist. I spent some time with [the physicist] Brian Cox, and he was a brilliant teacher. I’m never going to have the intellectual capability — not many of us do — but I loved listening. I enjoyed being around these insanely intelligent men and women and going for dinner to talk about normal sh-t… With that intellect — which I think can actually be a burden — you’re not seeing stuff in the normal plane that we do. Everything is multifaceted and about to collapse. It’d be a terrible way to buy milk or cut the grass, I’d say.”

Moving back to Ireland: “We had 14 years in London. But I feel like as you hit your late 30s and have kids, living in a major metropolis is less exciting. And then also, you know, we’re both Irish. We wanted the kids to be Irish. I think it’s the best decision we made. They’re really good boys. We have a laugh. We don’t do ‘Dad’s Movie Night’, but they like some of my films. They say all my films are really intense.”

On fame: “Fame evaporates with regularity. I’m around here all the time and no one gives a f–king sh-t. Nobody cares. I go to the shop. It dissipates. But if… one of the guys from Succession walked in here, I’d be all intimidated and shaky. When you’re confronted with someone you’ve invested a lot in, or you think is amazing, the encounter is strange…”

He doesn’t play the fame game: “I don’t really partake. I don’t go out. I’m just at home mostly, or with my friends, unless I have a film to promote. I don’t like being photographed by people. I find that offensive. If I was a woman, and it was a man photographing me…”

He’s fragile: “I’m totally fragile and insecure, like most actors. It’s putting your head over the emotional parapet. It’s f-ckin’ hard. It’s a vulnerable place to be.”

[From Rolling Stone UK]

This was honestly the most in-depth interview I’ve ever read with Murphy and he comes across so well. There are so many actors who talk out of both sides of their mouth when it comes to art vs commerce, fame vs privacy, but I genuinely believe that Murphy is just these quiet, slightly offbeat guy who does his work and doesn’t want to be bothered. I was reminded of Daniel Day Lewis halfway through this piece, only I think Cillian has a much healthier work-life balance and he can walk away from his work with more ease than DDL ever could. I also appreciate that he’s sh-t talking Catholicism, and specifically what monstrous things the Catholic Church did in Ireland.

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ASAP Rocky called Rihanna his “wife” and now there’s speculation that they got married secretly at some point. Sure, I would believe that. [LaineyGossip]
A Canadian politician filed an official grievance over Taylor Swift skipping Canada with her Eras tour. Sorry to the Canadian Snake Fam! [Dlisted]
Adele is a big fan of the Rocky franchise. [Pajiba]
I wonder if we’ll see Princess Kate in any of these Erdem pieces. [Go Fug Yourself]
Gwen Stefani dropped a new single! [Just Jared]
‘Moms for Liberty’ is super-sorry about quoting Adolf Hitler. [Jezebel]
Kim Kardashian got drunk in Hailey Bieber’s bathroom. [Egotastic]
Would you wear these Manolo Blahnik mules? [Tom & Lorenzo]
Some genuinely creepy photos (and some just weird photos). [Buzzfeed]
Demi Moore wore Emilia Wickstead to Royal Ascot. [RCFA]
This Seeking Sister Wife headline made me nauseous. [Starcasm]
A review of Chasing Chasing Amy. [Towleroad]

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This has been such an awful, strange, macabre and ultimately tragic story. Sunday morning, OceanGate lost contact with their tourist submarine, a vessel which carried people down to the site of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean. The Titanic site is and should be considered a mass gravesite, and it’s deeply inappropriate to see it become a “tourist attraction” for the idle rich, men with too much money and too little sense. That’s exactly what happened here: OceanGate’s Titan submersible went missing and lost contact, and endless resources were spent Monday through Thursday to locate the vessel and perhaps attempt a search-and-rescue mission. Then, on Thursday, some news: debris was found near the Titanic site. All five men on the submersible are presumed dead, and it’s believed that the submarine imploded on Sunday, as it descended to the Titanic mass grave site.

All five people aboard the submersible that went missing on Sunday were believed to be dead, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Thursday, ending a dayslong rescue effort that gripped much of the world.

“On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families,” Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a news conference on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, a remote-controlled vehicle located debris from the Titan submersible, including its tail cone, on the ocean floor, about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, he said.

“The debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” Admiral Mauger said.

Stockton Rush, the chief executive of OceanGate, was piloting the submersible. The four passengers were a British businessman and explorer, Hamish Harding; a British-Pakistani businessman, Shahzada Dawood, and his teenage son, Suleman; and a French maritime expert, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who had been on over 35 dives to the Titanic wreck site.

For rescuers, the search for the pilot and four passengers aboard the submersible, the Titan, was always a race against time. When the submersible, a 22-foot-long vessel owned by OceanGate, lost contact with a chartered ship on Sunday morning, it was more than halfway into its dive to the wreck of the Titanic, and it was believed to be equipped with only four days’ worth of oxygen.

Asked what the prospects were of recovering the bodies of the victims, Admiral Mauger said he did not have an answer. “This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor,” he said.

[From The NY Times]

As the NYT noted (from the Coast Guard’s presser), the possibility of a recovery operation for the remains is an open question. I hope that they do not attempt any recovery operation – let the dead bury the dead. A mass gravesite claimed five more souls. Let this be the end of this kind of Titanic tourism.

Which isn’t to say that this should be the end of the reporting or the accountability. OceanGate needs to reimburse the government for the expense of these search-and-rescue efforts, and I would imagine that the victims’ families will be suing the f–k out of OceanGate too. There should be a consensus about adding more safety regulations to these kinds of submersibles too – from what I understand, the science of this submersible never made any sense, and a tragedy like this was sadly inevitable.

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Prince William and the Princess of Wales finally made it to Royal Ascot today, after avoiding the event all week. King Charles and Queen Camilla rode in the first carriage (alongside the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire), then Will and Kate were shunted off to the second carriage, alongside Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. The Duchess of Edinburgh and the Kents were in carriage #3, if anyone cares.

Kate decided to go with a bright red Alexander McQueen dress and a matching hat by Philip Treacy. While many women wear bright colors to Ascot, most of the royal women have gone for whites, creams and pastels. I’m just saying, it’s a big choice for Kate to wear tomato-red to Ascot. Those giant earrings are also a choice! Don’t get me wrong, I actually love those earrings, but for Ascot?

Kate is making some pretty interesting styling choices lately when it comes to events where she knows she’ll be around Camilla and Sophie. She wants to make sure she stands out and gets the most attention. I do have to admit, tomato or not, she kind of ate this look.

The Prince and Princess of Wales arrive in the Royal Procession at #RoyalAscot! pic.twitter.com/1RcAW3Mc7t

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) June 23, 2023

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Photos courtesy of Getty and Cover Images.

While Michael Bloomberg has gone all-in with the Windsors, does it follow that his media empire also tows the Windsors’ line? I’m starting to wonder. Bloomberg’s tech columnist/reporter Ashley Carman has an exclusive about (what else) the end of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Spotify deal. Carman wondered the same thing I wondered: why didn’t Prince Harry ever produce a podcast? People have been screeching all week about how terrible it was that Meghan “only” produced one season of an incredibly successful podcast, all while ignoring the fact that Harry didn’t do anything except for that one Christmas pod. We also heard through industry sources that Harry and Meghan had pitched various ideas, only for Spotify to turn them down. Spotify executive Bill Simmons also called them “f–king grifters” and said that he had a call or meeting with Harry which went poorly. So, Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman tried to get to the bottom of what Harry pitched:

This got me wondering, while there’s been all this talk of Markle’s podcast and what she did or didn’t produce, what happened to a potential Harry show? I spoke to people with knowledge of the situation about what ideas the prince floated and why none of them ever came to fruition. They requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak about his work. Spotify declined to comment, as did Archewell Audio.

Harry spoke with multiple producers and production houses, these people said, to discuss possible shows. Along the way, Harry listened to various ideas from others but mostly stuck by his own — including one about childhood trauma. The concept: Harry would interview a procession of controversial guests, such as Vladimir Putin, Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump, about their early formative years and how those experiences resulted in the adults they are today.

Harry also had an idea, the people said, for a show centered on fatherhood. Another one would have tackled major societal conversations episode by episode, ranging from climate change to religion. For the latter, Harry hoped to have Pope Francis on as a guest.

The practicality of these ideas struck some people in the Harry-podcast cosmos as questionable at best, given that people like Putin and Zuckerberg rarely give wide-ranging interviews about the topics they’re passionate about — let alone about their upbringings and personal childhood traumas. In any case, no podcast from Harry ever materialized.

The difficulty of nailing down a workable idea and actually recording a show — over nearly three years of a production deal — speaks to the broader reckoning around celebrity-driven content.

The pandemic reduced work for movie stars and others who typically fly around the world from project to project. Instead, they were all stuck at home with plenty of time of time on their hands. Which is why, for a while, so many celebrities were signing podcast deals — even if they didn’t necessarily have a concrete, workable idea that could get made into a show, let alone become a hit. (There were, of course, exceptions like the SmartLess crew, whose podcast tour is now a special on Max.) These stars also maintained expectations for the kind of jumbo paychecks that were once reserved for movies, commercials and Las Vegas club appearances — and were not, in any way, typical of the podcast economy.

[From Bloomberg]

The thing about a pitch meeting is that you’re throwing out big names to get people excited about the overall concept. Like, I think a podcast in which Harry interviews men about childhood trauma sounds interesting, unique and possibly groundbreaking. I would also imagine it would be a hard sell, which is why Harry or “someone” started throwing out potential names of high-profile men. If Harry actually wanted to interview Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin, I will eat my f–king hat. Please. After what Trump said about Harry’s wife, I doubt Harry wanted any part of Trump. And a podcast about fatherhood would have been lovely, as would a pod with each episode devoted to “big issues.” It sounds like Harry needed to work on his pitches, honestly. So, that’s why Harry never produced a pod, according to Bloomberg’s sources – he wanted to do pods about trauma, fatherhood, environmentalism and religion? GASP!!

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.